By Dan Verbin(A7)
Jewish activist Dov Hikind slammed New York City Mayor Eric Adams for boasting about a 40 percent single-month drop in hate crimes without releasing a plan to fight antisemitic attacks in the city, which continue to increase.
“When I heard that Adams had touted a 40% single-month drop in hate crimes even as violent antisemitism continues to skyrocket, I assumed it was because he has some kind of plan for dealing with it,” Hikind wrote in a tweet.
He described in a video how he contacted the mayor’s office to find out what his plan was to deal with antisemitism.
“People in the Jewish community all over New York are extremely concerned about antisemitism, about the attacks that are ongoing almost on a daily basis,” said Hikind, a former NY State assemblyman and the founder of Americans Against Antisemitism.
“Just recently the New York Times headlined, ‘Antisemitic attacks in New York are at highest level in decades.’ What I find fascinating is that the mayor visited a synagogue this past weekend and he sort of boasted, and I understand why he would want to do that, that there was a 40 percent drop in New York City hate crimes, which is very perplexing because there have been attacks after attacks within our community just in the past week.”
Hikind added that “I know the mayor cares” and said that he knew “the mayor wants to deal with this problem.”
He called on Adams to release a plan on how he is going to deal with record high ongoing antisemitic attacks taking place in the city.
“Jewish New Yorks in particular they take off their yarmulkes, they hide their Star of David, they are afraid. That is the reality. Mayor Adams, please can I get a copy of the plan, your plan to fight this outbreak of hate in New York. How are you going to deal with it?”
Hikind went on to ask the public to call the mayor’s office to request a copy of the plan, providing them with the phone number.
He noted that New York was facing “a serious problem of hate directed against the Jewish people happening on a daily basis.”
“We need to get a copy of the mayor’s plan so that we can review it,” Hikind said.
He proceeded to call the mayor’s office to ask for a copy of the city plan to combat the “unprecedented outbreak of antisemitism” in New York. At that point, Hikind was transferred through multiple city departments and automated menus over a period of many minutes but was never given an answer about whether a plan exists or is available to the public.
“I don’t think I’m getting anywhere. This is a waste,” said an exasperated Hikind before hanging up.
